Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-08-26

| One Of the horrible incidents was thia. A
t that' ven dressed. who was so badly Injured
sanity for watas were called inces
go 10 ne finally pulled out his revolver and shot
ni ansa through the head.
lister at Abirgdon-Frank snadecker. abon tiI 70
years old-was found on the bosom Of his dead
osner His left leg hung by the skin, his right
Thew nuied 9Tbo ;. and one eve was put out
a oa;n OF brandy. He refused to take It and
s saaa: Give me water He never uttered a
r was sn found heed hanging from truck.
caught by the hair. o'e-'
~, II found several hesdless bodies. Those
them. ,As's
~one OF the most awful sights was that some
OF those released robbed the dead Of their
Watches and yaluables, and some people held
order to thus perpetrate robberies"
W. Gucker. one Of the GalesburR passengers.
re ses :. singular experience His wife and he
the train. They had no warning of what was
to come. The train was running at the rate OF
snlrsy-hve miles an hour. MI. Quicker was
breaking timbers. The end Of the scar car was
poised twenty feet in the air. He crawled
sn,otgn pr. broken window and slid down the
safely. Several Galesburg people who were in
that end OF the car escaped without serious in
Jury. The top Of the car parted in the center.
y. +. Van LEW, who walked from the safe end
Of the car the moment before, was CAUGHT and
dangerously injured.
There were thirty in the car" said Mr..
Quicker. and only six survive. Out Of one
party OF nine only three live. One man who
mad lost his wife and child and was badly in.
and committed suicide. Six young men from
Canton who were in the first car were saved by
being thrown up through the parted roofs 4
window
The pockets OF o number Of those In iured were
picked BY unfeeling rowdies"
H. Il. Riser, Of kanknkee, who was at the
scene of the wreck soon after the disaster.
says:
minutes atterward took q freight train: and
when We got to Forest the conductor had
Wben to bring all the Physicians he could
the most and
scene ever witnessed. Every one was
begging to be taken from the wreck, as
they were ,a afssid Of it catching IRE he bridge
out. All the trainmen and such passengers "a
COULD went to work to smother the FIRE. We had
nothing to work with except our hands. and
had to carry dirt as best we could.
a., At about 80 a. M q shower Of rain putyout
the fire and we turned our attention to reliev.
ing the people sn in the be-, cars: We worked until
bodies. besides scores of wounded peo-
pie: They were terribly manged. Re.
IleI Ualns tOOk Inc dead and wounded to Piper
City and Chatsworth. The city hall and
school house at Chatsworth were improvised
into hospital and the citizens came to our
relief With coffee bread and busr and
medicine for the suffering"
Mr. Risser sud he stood the sickening work
OF relieving the wounded ana getting out the
girls about the age OF bis own, when his hu.
mainly gave way and he was compelled to
stop.
THE DEAD.
The news Of the disaster was brought to
Chatsworth by one Of the passengers about mid
night and the inhabitants aroused. Buggies,
e essd to rsn the sfs fetal s As tss as shs
they were laid out on the side of the
track Before midnight the work of re.
covering the dead and moving them tc
were received they were placed in large
vacant building lately occupied as a store i;
also in the public school house and in
the depotwaiting room. The residents OF
the town threw open. their houses for
the reception OF tho dead and wounded,
but the former were oil taken to the
of the dead canlo to Chatsworth with
the remains, and the scenes in the different
places where the bodies lay were heartrending.
Al. the day. passed bodies We're being contin.
ually brought from the scene of the wreck, the
majority OF them being mangled in the most
frightful manner, many Of them having. their
exposed, while their jaws, fingers, and legs had
been torn Off.
NOTHING TO LIVE FOR.
There was one incident of the accident which
BILE scenes. III the second coach was u man,
his wife, and little child. His name could not
be learned, but it is said he got on al
Peoria. When the accident occurred the en-.
tire family of three were caught and held down
by broken woodwork. Finally, when relief
came, the man turned to the friendly aid and
"Tnke out my wife first. I'm afraid the child
is dead"
So they carried out the mothor, and as
broken seat was taken off her crushed breast
the blood which welled from her lips told how
badly she was hurt. They carried the child,
fair-haired, blue.eyed girl of 3. and laid her in
mother. Then they vent buck for the father and
brought him out. Both his legs were broken, but
he crawled through the corn to the side OF his
wife, and. feeling her loved features in the
darkness, pressed some brandy to her lips and
asked her how she felt. A feeble groan was
the only answer, and the next instant she died.
The man felt the form Of bis dead dead wife ,a and
pistol out Of his pocket. pulled the trigger. The
three dssd boes Of tSas family @
lying sale by side in Chatsworth waiting TO
INCIDENTS OF THE HORROR.
One man with both legs broken dragged him.
self away from the wreck and took out pistol
and shot himself in the head. Superintendent
Armstrong of the Wabash, accompanied the
excursion with his special car, with several
officials of tho road. None OF them was hurt.
From the latest reports it is said that l26 were
killed and about three hundred wounded max
ing it one Of the worst railroad accidents ever
known in this country.
There was nn incident in the affair which was
not only remarkable in its way, but shows how
terribly those six coaches were damned ana
mashed together. When the accident occurred
Andy Mooney. of Peoria, and Conductor Stlll'
we'll who was in charge OF the train were three
cars from each other. Mooney was in the
second car and Stillwell i'll the fifth, The
next instant they found themselves Literally
in each others arms, the car in (which
the conductor was riding having
been carried over the two in front and dropped
on ton OF the one which Mooney WAS in. The
strange part of it was that neither man was
hurt. .,o,,o e.,
the first car. This car was completely tele-
seemed and the coach behind it crashed entlfe-
" Through it, crushing every passenger. only
four people escaped alive from this car. and
three Of them were badly wounded, but one, q
large woman in the middle of the car, did not
GET scratch, while every one around her WIS
Don't ask me to describe the scene" said
Mr. A. Il. stauffer of Bloomington 1T was IN,
aascrbabie. | ran out of the sleeper nall
a. to get the people